


Maybe there is a perfect world after all

by raiderzzz



Series: The Perfect World [2]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/F, School Meal Club (TWICE), Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25171234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raiderzzz/pseuds/raiderzzz
Summary: Chaeyoung was saved at the last minute but at what cost?Alt. Ending of my previous work "Not that much of a perfect world".
Relationships: Chou Tzuyu/Kim Dahyun, Chou Tzuyu/Kim Dahyun/Son Chaeyoung, Chou Tzuyu/Son Chaeyoung, Kim Dahyun/Son Chaeyoung
Series: The Perfect World [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823488
Kudos: 19





	1. The Beginning of The End

**Author's Note:**

> I was disappointed with the ending of "Not that much of a perfect world" so I tried to change it without editing the ending of that fic.

The door is completely shut.

Chaeyoung doesn’t seem to care, she keeps walking forward to find the vaccines. She encounters a weird-looking chest, she stops and opens it. Smoke comes out of the chest and reveals the tube with the liquid that can possibly save humanity. She doesn’t waste any time as she immediately takes the tube and drinks it all at once.

She chokes a bit and coughs out some of the green liquid on the ground. She looks at it, the one thing that she always wanted before coming here. She finally achieved her goal, why is she not happy? Why is she not satisfied with herself? Oh, that’s right, she just killed one of her sisters for her own selfish need.

Dahyun slides down with her back against the door crying. Her surrounding suddenly becomes dark like her mind, she is trapped in her own nightmare. She looks at Chaeyoung angrily, her eyes are red with blood vessels popping out everywhere. She wants to curse at Chaeyoung, to yell at Chaeyoung so much but something is stuck at her throat. She still can’t believe the youngest one of the trios is gone, forever.

Tzuyu, the kid Dahyun loves as if she is her real sister, is dead and she has no one to blame but herself, not even Chaeyoung. She has sworn to protect Tzuyu and Chaeyoung even if she has to sacrifice herself but instead of doing that, she let the younger one down. How can she forgive herself now? How can she live now when the sole purpose of her existence was destroyed?

Chaeyoung looks around the room and a camera on the corner of the room catches her attention. She walks slowly to the camera, looking as angry as ever. She stands right in front of the camera, looks straight into the lens. Her eyes are burning with fire.

“Are you fucking happy now? HUH? Are you fucking done with your stupid game and let us out of here?” Chaeyoung shouts at the camera with her hands curl up into fists.

Upon hearing Chaeyoung’s shout, she can’t stand it anymore. Dahyun wipes out her tears, lightly slaps her cheeks, and stands up from her spot. She walks slowly to Chaeyoung, her fists are ready and her face shows nothing but anger. 

Chaeyoung keeps shouting and yelling at the camera, not knowing that Dahyun is coming. She feels a hand on her shoulder and turns her around, the next thing she knows is that her whole body drops on the ground. Her cheek feels hot and her heart feels hurt. Her eyes open wide and her mouth gasps for air as she doesn’t believe what just happened.

Dahyun can’t contain her anger toward Chaeyoung, she punches Chaeyoung hard in the face. Dahyun has never done anything violent, so this is the first time her fist feels this way. It doesn’t relieve her anger but instead fuels it even more. She doesn’t let Chaeyoung rest, she jumps on Chaeyoung and keeps punching her while screaming about Tzuyu.

“How dare you be angry? How dare you? Answer me you monster! You killed her, you killed her…” Dahyun’s face wrinkles as she forces her tears to not come out. She lets out a loud scream before falling on the ground crying again.

Chaeyoung doesn’t stop Dahyun punching her, she knows she deserves it. Blood is rolling down from her mouth, her eyes, and her nose. Tears also join the blood as she turns her head over to look at Dahyun. She reaches out to Dahyun, touches her hands which are still curling into fists.

“I’m sorry, unnie! But I was going to die, I had no other option. Please, forgive me…” Chaeyoung whispers to Dahyun, her face turns into a mess when blood and tears are all over her face.

Dahyun has done sobbing and mourning for Tzuyu, she is now mentally a zombie. She stands up, looks at Chaeyoung who is still lying on the ground crying with her hands on her face. She doesn’t feel any waves of anger toward Chaeyoung anymore, in fact, she doesn’t feel anything anymore. Dahyun drags Chaeyoung up, looks straight into her eyes.

“Listen, you can’t stay here and cry about what you did. You have to live, you have to survive so that Tzuyu’s sacrifice won’t be wasted. You don’t deserve to die after what you have done, you have to live with your guilt from now on.” Dahyun says coldly to Chaeyoung, she doesn’t have the warmth in her voice when she talked to Chaeyoung like before.

Chaeyoung nods her head slowly, hopes that it would cool Dahyun down. She follows Dahyun quietly, keeps her head close as she doesn’t want to look at Dahyun now, it only makes her feel guiltier. No one says anything to each other, the atmosphere is almost unbearable. Chaeyoung tries to not get emotional again by fidgeting with her fingers, scratching the back of her hands, and bites her lips hard but she fails to calm down when Dahyun opens the door.

Tzuyu is still there, sitting down on the floor with her back against the wall. Her face is so pale and her lips get so many cuts, probably because she bit them to endure the pain before she died. Her right hand is still holding the wound on her shoulder, she must have been in great pain before death took her away seeing how big the wound is. But her face shows different, her eyes are closed with a relaxed expression on her face.

She doesn’t look hurt but rather free as if she has been released from a cage that was locking her up for a very long time. As if she is sleeping in her mother’s arms when she has a nightmare.

Dahyun doesn’t say anything, or she just can’t say anything. Seeing the person she loved so much sitting there dying alone is too much for the young girl to handle. She wants to run up to her, to hug her, to tell her everything is alright but her body won’t move as if a chain of guilt has hooked on her limbs, forbid her from coming close to that person.

The last image of Tzuyu haunts Chaeyoung again, she can’t get the smile that Tzuyu gave her before she closed the door. Her hands are shaking, her legs are slowly giving up on her and her sight is getting blurry again. She can’t even count how many times she has cried in the last fifteen minutes, but it is more than her entire life combined. She drops down on the floor, the wound on her leg gets ripped open and blood is slowly coming out but she doesn’t care anymore.

Dahyun finally regains the control of her body back, she glances at Chaeyoung and then walks up to Tzuyu. Leaving her here is not something Dahyun can do, she won’t let Tzuyu go away without proper burying. She kneels down, hugs Tzuyu one last time, and then wraps her flimsy arms around her neck, carries her up. Dahyun always joked with them that no way she could carry the giant maknae but this time, she gets her up on her back with no problem.

Dahyun ignores Chaeyoung, she walks down the stair to get out of this filthy place. Her mind is so occupied with Tzuyu that she doesn’t notice there are no zombies in this building anymore. Every step with Tzuyu on her back reminds her about each of the memories they had together, from the first time she found her to the last time she saw her before Chaeyoung closed the door. She feels weak, she feels lost.

In the meantime, Chaeyoung is still sitting there, staring into the bloody wall in front of her. She should have been the one that got bit, not Tzuyu. She is going to die anyway, it’s better to save the healthy one than her selfish self. Getting lost in her thought, JYP’s voice appears out of nowhere again, but this time Chaeyoung doesn’t even flinch at it.

“I didn’t expect you guys to be able to get here, not bad, not bad at all. It’s a bummer that one of you died but hey, a small sacrifice for a bigger cause. Don’t be too sad, at least you are still alive, even though you just killed your friend to save yourself.” JYP says sarcastically, he is mocking Chaeyoung but her mind is not stable to even hear what he is saying again. “As I promised, a lab with a team of scientists will be given to you and…”

“Shut the fuck up, old man. Fuck you and your stupid lab. You caused all of this and you made my life became a disaster. Get the fuck out of my life forever.” Chaeyoung interrupts him and shouts at him. She doesn’t want to hear his voice anymore and runs down the stair to Dahyun.

Dahyun is on the first floor, almost at the entrance. She is still walking slowly, chatting with Tzuyu as if she is still alive. She doesn’t want to believe that Tzuyu is gone, she rejects any thought going in her head and she tries to convince herself that Tzuyu is still alive. But no matter how much she tries to convince herself that, Tzuyu is considered dead and the virus is the only thing that can keep her “alive”.

Chaeyoung finally catches up to Dahyun, she slows down and walks beside her. Blood is still dripping on her leg but that doesn’t hurt her as much as seeing Dahyun acting like this. Being her childhood friend and her only friend in school, Dahyun is pretty much Chaeyoung’s whole life before Tzuyu joined their group. Chaeyoung has developed a feeling for Dahyun for a very long time. She loves Dahyun.

Tzuyu joining the group changed everything. Chaeyoung is no longer the youngest one but instead the middle one, the one that usually receives the least love. Dahyun devoted all of her love to Tzuyu because of the responsibility of being the oldest and the leader of the group. Chaeyoung felt left out, she doesn’t hate Tzuyu, she just only wanted Dahyun to give her some attention. That’s why she started to act rebellious so that Dahyun could scold her and give her the attention she wanted.

The entrance of the building has no guards or zombies as if JYP has cleared their way out as a reward. Chaeyoung doesn’t want to give the old man the credit but she is glad that they don’t have to deal with any threats, especially when no one can fight right now. They walk out of the building right at dawn when the sun is peeking out at the horizon. This is Tzuyu’s favorite time of the day because it reminds her that she has survived another day.

The atmosphere gets heavier between them, so heavy that Dahyun stops talking to Tzuyu and keeps walking back to their hideout. Chaeyoung also says nothing, she just follows Dahyun mindlessly. After about five hours of walking, they finally reach their hideout, their home.

Dahyun carries Tzuyu to the bathroom and gets their precious water out to clean Tzuyu’s body. She can’t leave Tzuyu in this filthy state with all the blood, dirt, and sweat. She deserves to be beautiful no matter what. Chaeyoung doesn’t say anything, she gets some alcohol and rinses her wound. She has never done this before, it was always Dahyun, but after seeing Dahyun did it countless times, she kinds of knows how to wrap herself up.

After patching herself up, Chaeyoung goes to find Dahyun but Dahyun is already at the door, carries Tzuyu into their room. She puts the younger girl down by her bed and puts a strap around her to keep her down in case she turns. Chaeyoung is terrified by Dahyun’s idea. How can she sleep next to a zombie like this?

“Unnie, you can’t put her here. I know you are sad but you can’t hang on to the past forever. Just let her go.” Chaeyoung tries to sound as sincere as possible but seeing how Dahyun doesn’t react, she knows her words don’t mean anything to her.

“Don’t worry, I’ll just let her be here tonight. She at least deserves to sleep in her own bed for the last time. We will leave tomorrow.” Dahyun turns to face Chaeyoung, her face shows no emotion which is rare because she has always been the mood changer of the group. She somehow looks even paler than normal.

“Wait, what do you mean “we will leave tomorrow”? I don’t want to go anywhere, this is our home.” Chaeyoung asks Dahyun, her eyebrows frown in confusion.

“No, you can stay here. I will leave with Tzuyu tomorrow to find the cure for her. Don’t worry, I don’t blame you for everything that happened, I blame myself for not protecting you guys better.” Dahyun smiles forcefully at Chaeyoung.

“WHAT? No, you can’t leave me here and expect me to take care of myself? I don’t even know how to open the can of food. I can’t live alone, not without you.” Chaeyoung’s eyes wide open, she frowns while softly yelling at Dahyun.

“You are still acting selfishly even at this time. I’m sure you will be fine without us. I will teach you everything you need tomorrow before we leave. Plus, you had the vaccine in your body so you don’t have to worry about being turned, you are not going to live close to Tzuyu anyway.”

Chaeyoung is stunned, every word coming out of Dahyun’s mouth is like a knife stabbing her heart. Sweat starts to form on her head as she sits down on Dahyun’s bed across from Tzuyu’s bed, she can’t believe it, all of this is just a dream. She suddenly stands up and runs out of the room to the rooftop, where she usually draws when she feels overwhelmed with the world, which is almost every night.

Dahyun doesn’t really care about Chaeyoung anymore, she sits down next to Tzuyu, holds her hand, and looks at her wound. Dahyun did a good job at patching Tzuyu’s shoulder but even with top tier doctors and technology, Tzuyu won’t be able to use her left arm anymore. Dahyun knows there is still a slim chance to save Tzuyu, to turn her back to normal and she swears to God she will catch the chance with all she has, even when she has to sacrifice herself.

Chaeyoung is sitting on her normal spot again with her drawing set next to her. She always uses drawing as an escape gate from reality, from the shitty world and from the situation she is in. Chaeyoung doesn’t draw real objects but she likes abstract art more, she can draw whatever in her mind without paying too much attention in detail.

But this time instead of occupying her mind with drawing, she spends her time to think, about Dahyun, about Tzuyu, about her future with or without them. She can’t imagine her life without Dahyun, she has fallen deeply in love, a deep hole that she can’t get out. She doesn’t understand why Dahyun has to stick with Tzuyu, she is just a walking dead now. Chaeyoung is still alive and she can protect Dahyun, but why does she get left out which is a question she can’t answer.

She stays on the roof for god knows how long but when she wakes up, the sun is peeking out from the horizon again. She gets panic and runs down the stairs hoping that Dahyun is still sleeping in her room. She sighs in relief when she sees Dahyun is still sleeping on the floor while holding Tzuyu’s hand. At that moment, she has decided to come with them, leaving her home, her comfort zone.

“Dahyun, wake up! Wake up!” Chaeyoung lays Dahyun, who is slowly getting up while rubbing her eyes. “I’ll go with you. I’m the only one who is immune to the virus so it is safer for you to go with me, especially when Tzuyu can turn any moment.”

“What are you talking about? You don’t have to do that. I can handle things on my own.” Dahyun says in her sleepy voice, still rubbing her eyes and yawning.

“NO! I have decided to come and you can’t stop me. I’ll go pack my things right now.” Chaeyoung says and then runs out to get the backpack.

Dahyun doesn’t show it out but she is happy seeing Chaeyoung like that. She is still afraid of what’s going to happen on the way but at least three of them are together again, going on an adventure like the old time.


	2. Separate

_Thump! Thump! Thump!_

The sound keeps repeating and mixes with heavy breathing sound. A short young girl is running across the street with a group of grown men chasing right behind her. Sweats are forming on her forehead and rolling down on her face, some even get into her eyes.

She curses under her breath as she wipes her face and looks back, the distance between her and the chasers are not too far but with this pace, her legs will give up on her at any time and it will be the end for her.

“Why does this always happen? Why can’t I have a peaceful time for just one day?” she asks herself as she keeps running, swinging her arms and her legs faster.

Go back at that morning, when Chaeyoung decided to go with Dahyun. She ran out of the room and got the backpack. Her lips curved up with the thought of being close with Dahyun again. Even though she still didn’t like the idea of letting Tzuyu come with them, she was not in the position to say that to Dahyun.

Her face darkened as she thought about the relationship between Dahyun and Tzuyu. There was something special between them since the first time they met and she was pretty sure it wasn’t just a platonic relationship. She shook the thought out of her head and continued to pack the food into her backpack.

Dahyun didn’t move much after Chaeyoung left, she was too deep in her thought. She didn’t get why Chaeyoung acted that way, she thought Chaeyoung and Tzuyu were the closest in the trio even though she knew Chaeyoung longer. So logically speaking, Chaeyoung had to be the one who got fed up and sad when Tzuyu turned, but instead, she wanted to get rid of Tzuyu and moved on so fast.

Dahyun closed her eyes, there were too many things that happened in the last twenty-four hours that her head hurt just by thinking about it. She massaged her temple and slapped her cheeks with both of her hands to wake herself up. She decided to forget everything for now and prepare for their adventure, she could always ask Chaeyoung later.

Chaeyoung walked in with a big and heavy backpack that had tons of canned food and unnecessary things like a frying pan. Maybe she thought they were going to have a barbeque later or something but Dahyun didn’t want to carry anything that could slow them down.

Dahyun frowned as she took the backpack from Chaeyoung, she almost dropped it because she didn’t realize how heavy it was but she managed to hold it with Chaeyoung help. She took out all of the unnecessary things in Chaeyoung’s whine and only keep the food, bandages, and some fireworks that they found a while ago.

Dahyun instinct told her that they might be useful later.

After making sure everything was set and they were ready to leave, Chaeyoung suddenly ran to the roof. Her masterpieces were on there, lying on the ground where she slept. She couldn’t leave her arts here, they were everything to her. 

In the end, they had two backpacks, one was for the food and her arts with the drawing supplies and the other was for bandages and weapons, things that you would need in case of emergency.

The hard thing was how could they carry Tzuyu with two of these heavy backpacks. Tzuyu was way taller than both of them and the only reason why Dahyun was able to carry her back home was because of her adrenaline rush. If she had to do it again, she probably couldn’t.

So, they had to choose, either to keep Tzuyu or to leave one backpack behind and obviously, Dahyun chose the latter, there was no way she would leave Tzuyu.

Chaeyoung was once again irritated by the love Dahyun had for Tzuyu. It would be so much easier if Dahyun just left Tzuyu here and walked away, moved on with her life, with Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung frowned her brows and facepalmed herself when she saw Dahyun threw the backpack with the food and her arts back. 

“What are you doing Dahyun? What are we going to eat when the only things we have are a backpack full of bandages and weapons and a useless corpse?” Chaeyoung was so frustrated that she said something she didn’t mean to. She regretted it afterward, but her ego was too big for her to back down.

“What the fuck is wrong with you Chaeyoung? She is not a useless corpse, she is our friend, our sister. Why can’t you just stop thinking about Tzuyu like she is a burden? Again, I’m not forcing you to come with us, you can always choose to stay.” Dahyun was really mad. Her eyes opened wide and her eyebrows furrowed, she couldn’t stand Chaeyoung being disrespected to Tzuyu like this.

“But my arts and drawings, you know how much I love them and how much effort I put in them. Arghhh, forget it,” Chaeyoung groaned as she looked at Dahyun in frustration. Dahyun had never given her that look before, she felt disappointed.

Chaeyoung knew she was wrong but her pride was too high to say sorry, she just kicked the backpack and walked out of the room. She was afraid that she would only make the situation worse if she kept staying inside and arguing with Dahyun. It was getting better a moment ago but Tzuyu ruined it again.

To cool herself down, Chaeyoung once again returned to the rooftop, the only place where she could have some space for herself. Looking at the far horizon, all she saw were rubble and abandoned buildings. She saw no hope in them, she saw no hope in her future. Yelling at the sky to release her desperation and anger, all she had left was nothing.

Dahyun heard Chaeyoung, she knew Chaeyoung would be at her place again but she didn’t have the right mind to comfort Chaeyoung like she would normally do before. She looked at Tzuyu who was sleeping peacefully despite all of the yellings, she remembered that Tzuyu would wake up just by the smallest noise.

_Tzuyu is actually gone. How can I save her now? I have no clue, I’m so lost._ Dahyun thought to herself as she fixed the younger one’s hair. Her heart ached every time she looked at the younger one who she saw as her real sister. Saying all of the fancy words to Chaeyoung despite not knowing how to find the cure for Tzuyu, she was just lying to herself.

It didn’t take long for Chaeyoung to calm down, even though her ego was big, her love for Dahyun was bigger and she couldn’t afford to lose Dahyun. She ran down the stair when she heard the sound of the door open.

“Where do you think you are going? You are not leaving me behind,” she said as she ran next to Dahyun. Dahyun didn’t have anything with her, only Tzuyu on her back. “You don’t even bring the backpack with you. How are you going to survive? I won’t change my opinion any time soon, but I will go with you to protect you. I have the vaccine in me after all.”

And with that, they began their long journey that no one knew the destination.

Their adventure was quite boring, completely different from what Chaeyoung and Dahyun expected. They thought it would be full of zombies and hunters on their way, it’s not that they wanted to face them but walking on the street with nothing to do is frustrating, especially when they didn’t even know where they were going.

“I’m so hot and tired, Dahyun. Why don’t we take a break somewhere in one of these abandoned buildings? It’s not like anyone would use them other than us.” Chaeyoung dragged her tired body along with the backpack on her back.

They had been walking for ten hours straight from their hideout. They didn’t stop to have lunch or break, and the sun was coming down too. They didn’t know the exact time but looking at the sun, it must be around five in the evening.

“Yeah, I think it will be a good idea to have a break. My back is killing me. Why does it feel so tired carrying Tzuyu now? It was not like this yesterday.” Dahyun kept complaining as she walked over to a fairly decent house compared to the other one around the area.

The house was quite clean, suspicious but none of them were in the right mind to think about it right now. All they wanted now was to rest and no one could blame them. Slowly walking in, Dahyun looked around to find a good spot to make a camp and decided to take the bedroom upstairs, it looked like the most decent room in here.

Dropping Tzuyu down on the dusty bed, Dahyun plopped down on the ground and breath heavily. Sweats were rolling down from her face and her neck, with her chest going up and down rapidly.

Chaeyoung was no different, she threw the backpack down and sat down next to Dahyun. Her breathing was fast, but it was better than Dahyun. Using her hands to wipe the sweat off of her face, she sighed as her stomach rumbled.

They had nothing to eat, Dahyun left the other backpack at home. Honestly, Dahyun kind of regretted that decision, but looking at Tzuyu who was lying peacefully on the bed next to her, she thought to herself that it was worth it.

“What now? Do you want me to loot the house and the area around here? Well, no matter whatever you say I will do it anyway. I’m not planning to starve myself.” Chaeyoung stood up and walked over to the backpack. Before she could go loot, she wanted to have something to defend herself and a knife should be good enough.

Looking at Chaeyoung who was walking out to find some food, Dahyun thought to herself that she was such a bad leader. She couldn’t protect Tzuyu, she couldn’t resolve the tension between her and Chaeyoung and she couldn’t even feed her group.

Slapping her face lightly, she told herself that this was not the time to think about the past, she had a long way waiting for her, and she couldn’t let anything of the things in the past happened again. She cheered herself up again, that’s right, she was good at cheering other people and herself up, she should start doing that again.

She rested for five minutes, barely enough time to catch her breath, before hearing lots of sounds at the door. At first, she thought it was Chaeyoung but after one second, she knew it was not. There were too many noises, footsteps, and laughter of grown men.

At this moment, she knew she fucked up big time. No wonder this house was so clean to begin with. There was no trash or broken furniture lying around the house like the other one around the area. She cursed at herself for ignoring such a crucial hint.

Immediately she thought of Chaeyoung, that girl was probably down there or somewhere closed to the group of hunters. She bit her lips thinking about how could she get away with this. It was easy if she was alone, but she had to carry Tzuyu and the backpack.

The noises were getting closer, they were just at the end of the stair. Luckily, the bedroom was at the end of the hallway so she still had some time left to think. The clock was ticking but she still couldn’t think of a solution for this.

She then looked at the window of the bedroom. _No way, I’m not going to survive that. Arghhh, fuck it. I’m gonna die if I stay here anyway._ She carefully walked over to Tzuyu and pulled her on her back. She took a deep breath before opening the window. It was quite high but she had to do this.

But before she made the jump, she heard a loud sound downstairs. It caught the attention of the hunters too as they walked down the stair, moved away from where Dahyun was. After a few seconds of thinking, she knew it was Chaeyoung who did that.

Thanking the other girl in her head, she grabbed the backpack and wore it in front of her. It was heavy carrying Tzuyu on her back and the backpack in front, but she had no other choice. Sneaking out of the room, she heard the conversation of the hunters.

“Who the fuck did that? Did you drop something?” one of the hunters asked but none of them answered. At that point, they knew they had an uninvited guest.

“Hmmm.. let’s see who the rat is! Hahaha,” the other hunter said and laughed out loud which caused the other one to laugh too.

Dahyun could see all of them walking down the stair and she could count that there were around six of them. There was no way she could fight them, not even when Tzuyu was normal and they were at their peak physique. The only safe option for her and Tzuyu was to lay low and sneak out.

But that created another problem, how about Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung was fast, but she couldn’t fight fully equipped grown men. Looking back at Tzuyu on her back, Dahyun had to trust Chaeyoung on this and escaped on her own. She could only hope that Chaeyoung would make out of this alive.

Dahyun slowly walked over to the stair, peeking her head out to check the hunters. It looked like they were going around the house to check the source of the sound. The house was big so the way from the stair to the door was quite long but since they were all scattered around the house and away from the door, Dahyun thought she could make it.

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes to gain some courage, she moved down the stair quietly while keeping her eyes out for any of the hunters. Every step felt like she was banging against the wooden stair, sweats were rolling down her forehead.

She picked up her pace when she heard footsteps coming closer. She clenched her jaws and her fists tight, ready for whatever was coming but suddenly the footsteps turned around and walked away.

Dahyun sighed heavily and ran out of the house, to the other building across from it. Upon entering the building, she felt down on her stomach. She was being sandwiched between Tzuyu on top and the backpack at the bottom. Carefully putting Tzuyu down, she threw the backpack away and breathed like she was going to die.

On the other hand, Chaeyoung was in great trouble. She was looking for something to eat in the kitchen at the back of the house, away from the front door. She hit a jackpot when there were tons of canned food in the fridge but her joy didn’t last long.

She heard the sound of footsteps at the front door which caused her to immediately drop down on her knee and hide behind the wall. _Fuck, why are they here? They picked the worst time to come back._

She saw the back door in the kitchen and she was about to make a run out of this house before she remembered that Dahyun was still upstairs. She knew she couldn’t leave Dahyun here, so as irrational as she was, she decided to throw one of the cans of food on the ground.

Her plan succeeded in drawing the attention of the hunters, but this put herself in danger. Gripping the knife firmly, she was prepared to fight whoever was coming. Peeking her head out to see how many there were, she immediately got back into hiding when she saw six of them.

_Well, fighting them is a death wish for sure. But at least Dahyun should get enough time to get out of here. It’s time for me to make a run using the back door._ She thought to herself before checking the hallway one last time.

She saw one of the hunters walking back to the front door. She couldn’t wait any longer, Dahyun might get caught if she kept staying here. Chaeyoung stood up and ran to the back door, ramming it to get the attention of the hunters. Luckily, all of the hunters heard it and started chasing her.

Confident with her speed, Chaeyoung ran without looking back, she assumed that those men couldn’t catch up with her. After running for a while, she slowed down and looked back with a smirk but that smirk quickly faded away upon seeing them just right behind her.

_Fuck, why are they so fast? I thought with all of those armors and weapons they would be slow but god damn they are fast._ She cursed out as she picked up her pace again. She had no other option but to keep running, hoping that they would give up at some point before her legs gave up on her.

But oh boy she was wrong. They didn’t give up or even slow down, their stamina and speed were even better than Chaeyoung. They were basically beasts, they didn’t feel tired and they just didn’t want to give up.

After remembering what led to this point of her life, Chaeyoung notices an apartment building on her right. It might be her escape or her death, but she is willing to bet on it. Making a quick turn, she runs to the apartment hoping that she will get someplace to hide from the hunters.

Upon entering the place, the smell of rotten meat punches her nose so bad she almost falls down but she manages to stay up and keeps running. Running up the stair to the fifth floor, she doesn’t know why she chose this but she guesses her instinct guide her here.

The sound of the footsteps running up the stair is getting louder, they almost catch up to Chaeyoung and if she can’t find anywhere to hide, this will be the end of her. Gripping her knife harder, she is ready to fight them or to kill herself right now.

God seems to be on her side today as she sees an opened door at the end of the hallway. Quickly running in and locking the door behind her, she stands away from the door and puts her knife up in case they knock the door over.

The hunters punch and kick the door for a while but after some time, they give up and walk away. Chaeyoung comes closer and looks through the hole on the door when she can’t hear any more noise outside and she sees no one.

Her whole body collapses to the ground as she opens her mouth to gasp for some air. Her hand which was holding the knife now can relax and she loosens the grip, dropping the knife down. She can barely move her limbs, all of her energy is gone from the chase.

Her chest keeps moving up and down rapidly, she closes her eyes to rest her mind a little bit but problems don’t want to leave her alone. She hears some noises in the house but she is not ready to fight anymore.

Lifting her head up to see what is coming for her, she hopes that it will be a zombie. At least she knows the zombie will only eat her, only God knows what will humans do to her.

But the person in front of her doesn’t fit in any of the one Chaeyoung imagines, it is actually a little girl who holds a knife in front of her, shaking. Chaeyoung lets out a relieved sigh as she rests her head on the ground again.

“Don’t worry kid, I won’t hurt you. I can barely move my body right now. So can you throw the knife away? It is kinda dangerous for a kid like you to hold it.” Chaeyoung tries to sound as friendly as possible but it is hard to form a sentence when she is out of breath. Luckily, she is able to finish what she is trying to say.

The kid drops the knife on the ground, her hands are still shaking but she seems to calm down a bit. She runs back to her room and locks the door, Chaeyoung assumes so as she hears a click after the girl closes the door.

Chaeyoung thinks she is fine to rest now but the girl says out loud from inside her room, “Who are you? Why are you here? Why do you have people chasing you?” Chaeyoung ignores the girl for now, she doesn’t have any energy left to answer her.

After a while of not receiving an answer, the girl grows impatient and asks out loud again, “Why don’t you answer? You shortie! You bad people trying to steal my house!” She keeps shouting, calling Chaeyoung all the bad things she knows. Even though Chaeyoung doesn’t mind most of them, there is a particular word that triggers Chaeyoung.

“Yah! Who did you call ‘shortie’ you little shit? I’m still growing you hear me! I will be 1m60 soon.” Chaeyoung shouts back at the kid with all of her might. She hates anyone who calls her “shortie”, it touches her insecurity and she just hates it with all her gut.

They keep fighting like kids, well, one of them is a kid. They keep throwing insulting words at each other but none of them means it. After a while, Chaeyoung stops and starts laughing out loud which causes the girl laughing too.

Chaeyoung sits up and takes a better look at the apartment. Since this area of the town is mostly for poor people, the apartment is quite small with little to no furniture at all. There is a dining table with two chairs in the kitchen, a sofa with a small coffee table in front of it in the living room with a blanket on the sofa. They don’t even have a TV.

There is only one room in the apartment and that is the little girl room, she can tell from the decoration and the name tag on the door. It says “Haruka” which she guesses is the little girl’s name. It is a beautiful name, but it doesn’t sound Korean, perhaps Japanese maybe.

Chaeyoung stands up from where she was sitting, the knife is in her hand. She doesn’t mean to use it, but she has nowhere to put it so she just holds it in the meantime. Now that some of her energy is back, she walks around to find something to put in her stomach before she starves to death.

She makes all kinds of noises opening the cabinets in the kitchen but she can’t find any signs of food or drinks. She is getting frustrated as her stomach keeps rumbling. No food is okay, but she needs some water. The chasing drains her out completely.

The girl seems to know what Chaeyoung is doing, she says from her room, “There is no food or drink out there. I’m not going to tell you that I and my dad hid them in my room.” She sounds like she is teasing Chaeyoung, Chaeyoung doesn’t know if it is intentional or not but the girl just revealed her secret place of hiding food.

“Haruka-chan, I’m not a bad person. Can you give me some water? I’m dying out here.” Chaeyoung walks over to the room and using her knowledge about Japanese by watching Anime, she adds “chan” to the end of the girl’s name hoping that she will sound friendlier.

“How... how do you know my name? I didn’t tell you, did I?” The girl seems flustered as she stutters her words. Chaeyoung chuckles at the girl’s innocent and decides to play along with her a little bit. She might get something from the girl in return.

“I’m a witch, I know everything. I even know that you have food and drinks in your room.”

“What... what? How do you know that? Were you spying on us? I’m an adult, you can’t trick me. I know that witches aren’t real.”

“Really? So how do you explain why I know your name and your food hiding place?”

“Uhmmm... I don’t know.” The girl lowers her voice, it seems like she really gets tricked by Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung giggles quietly at the girl, she can’t believe how cute this girl is. The girl reminds her of her past when her innocent self kept following Dahyun and asking about everything she saw. _Ah, the good old time._ Her mood suddenly gets darkened, she lowers her head thinking about her past.

At that moment, she hears a click at the front door. It freaks her out a little bit but she immediately grips her knife tight and prepares to fight. One drop of sweat, two drops of sweat, they keep rolling down her forehead as she waits for the door to open.

Controlling her breath, she hides behind the counter in the kitchen. She just hopes that she doesn’t have to use her knife, but if that person is being hostile to her then she has no other choice.

The lock is finally unlocked and the door slowly swings open. A middle-aged man walks in with a plastic bag in one hand, a gun in another. Chaeyoung holds her breath as she waits for the man to walk closer. She is waiting for the right moment to come out.

“I know you are behind the counter. Come out or I will open fire.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> If you have any ideas or prompts about their adventure please feel free to comment down below.


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